Story and photos by NIK NAIZI HUSIN
THE three-day Friends of Asia Pacific World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) general assembly held in Kuantan was a time for bonding and also an opportunity for the participants to get to know Pahang better.
WAGGGS is the official umbrella organisation for the national Girl Guide and Girl Scout organisations in the world with about 10 million individual members.
It provided young women with high quality non-formal educational programmes, including training in life skills, leaderships and decision making.
Fostering good relationship: Tunku Azizah (left), Adviser on Women and Social Development to the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil with the Korean participants.The assembly held in Kuantan recently saw some 100 participants from Malaysia, South Korea and Australia taking time off during the event to have a familiarisation tour to the Royal Tenun (weaving) Centre in Kampong Sunagi Soi in the town and later proceed to visit Rumah Penyayang Tun Rahah and the Tunku Azizah cooking school in the Inderapura Resort, both in the Royal Town of Pekan.
Royal Patron of WAGGGS and Malaysia’s WAGGGGS chairman Tengku Puan Pahang Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah Sultan Iskandar said the participants were able to let their hair down during the three days to strengthen not only their friendship but the guiding spirit in them.
“It is what I call bonding time,” Tunku Azizah said in her message in the souvenier programme book.
This is how you do it: Tunku Azizah showing off her cooking skills to the participants.She said the gathering was held a week after the World Thinking Day and in conjucntion with the day, she called on members to think of how to recruit more friends.
“Think of how many more friends we can have and all the wonderful things we can do to promote and contribute towards guiding in the Asia Pacific region,” she said.
During the visit to the weaving centre, the participants were shown the art of tenun Pahang, which included fabric weaved by the skillful workers and guests in the centre.
Music time: The villagers in Pekan district playing traditional music for the participants during their visit to the Tunku Azizah Cooking School.They spent more than an hour getting to know the centre’s workers and guests while appreciating their art of weaving.
In Rumah Penyayang Tun Rahah, orphans and children from broken homes were delighted to meet the WAGGGS participants.
Lunch was held in a hall together with the participants and Tunku Azizah.
Later in the evening, the participants visited Inderapura Resort and the nearby Tunku Azizah cooking school where Tunku Azizah showed off her cooking skills.